I've finally sorted through the giant pile of pictures that I took in Munich, and here are the highlights. We had 4 days to spend there because last Thursday was the holiday of Ascension, which is one of the few national German holidays. Here it is called "Man's Day" and men, young and old, don their lederhosen and walk around the streets pulling carts full of beer and singing German songs. I'm not making this up. [Addition: I just got out of a meeting with Peter, one of the German grad students, and we were discussing the bizareness of Man's Day, and he said (you must read this to yourself with a thick German accent), "I think it is funny and also sad that on that day there are so many drunk men that are falling into the road like leaves in autumn." Seriously not making this up.] So we got off of school a day early and headed to Munich for a weekend full of sunshine, breezes, good food, and giant beers. Munich is a beautiful city and had some great sightseeing (we took in the sites astride sweet bikes on Mike's Bike Tours). About 50% of the city was destroyed during WWII, resulting in an interesting mix of old structures that have been half-rebuilt with new materials. But all in all, it was a great town - my favorite in Germany thus far! Here are some photographs of scenic Munich, our bike tour, and our trip to the Hofbrauhaus. First, general photos of Munich:


Marienplatz, the main town square, and the Old Town Hall:




This is an odd sign that we ran across in the City Center. What does this mean? No pedestrians? No mothers and children? Or maybe it's ok if you're a mom, but don't bring your kid? Maybe it means that you can have your kid, but you can't hold their hand...


Here's a picture of Andrea with our sweeter-than-sweet bikes that we rode around Munich. The bike tour was a little over 4 hours long, but there were plenty of stops and lots of cool things to see.

Here our group rides around a fountain. I realize this may not look like that much fun, but take my word, it rocked.


We stopped to tour the inside of a church (off the bikes, of course). Check this place out. I've never seen such intricate sculpting on the walls, and notice that there are no stained glass windows!

Here is the Munich "beach" which is not so far from where they "surf".

This is more like a ditch than an ocean, but the "surfers" have a constant wave to ride.


We stopped for a lunch break at the Chinese pagoda in the Englischer Garten. This is where I got that GIANT beer and GIANT sausage and yes, I finished both. And then I spiked my napkin. Maria, this one's for you.


Here I am, happy to have had so much beer and sausage.


And then I thought, "wow, I really loved that beer and sausage."

And then I was sad that the beer and sausage were gone.

But fear not! Our GIANT beer days were not over. We went to the Hofbrauhaus which was everything you imagine a German beer hall would be. Lots of men drinking and singing songs. I swear, I'm not making this up. This guy's t-shirt says it all.


And this guy's lederhosen says even more.



I'll leave you with one last oddity about German life. They label their trashcans so that you know what you should throw away and what you should recycle. It's nice that they put pictures up too, so that us stupid Americans know what's going on. For instance, you put your glass bottles here:

And you through your paper away here:

But did they really need to put pictures of trash on this thing? This is disgusting! No one wants to look at old cigarette butts, french fries, and what? Is that a cassette tape? Is it 1986? That's so outdated that I actually just had to look at dictionary.com to make sure that I spelled cassette correctly (and I hadn't).

And one more crazy thing: creepy, creepy dolls.